House Rule compilation - "D10"

[Grail Quest]

What is D10? Here is just a fraction of the possibilities! IMAGINE:

* no longer having to agonize over which skills are class and cross-class
* no longer looking up class progression charts
* no longer having boring character levels where you get nothing except another hit die

* shaping and evolving your character exactly the way you want, without having to jigsaw a half dozen character classes together
* putting your character through a mid-life career change without having to reconstruct your character over a mismash of levels and classes

It contains innovations such as :

* classless development
* revised skill chart, with some feats folded into skills

* corrected and expanded size chart
* no maximum or minimum size
* new interpretations of what size does
* separation of size and mass - allowing for correct Strength scores for Climb, Jump, and Swim


* new take on putting together monsters

* the elements of weapons and armor

and much, much, more.

Use it in whole or in part or just for inspiration.

Disclaimer: This is a d20 "mod" personal project, and is in no way meant to imply backing or production from any publisher.

Get it FREE at www.freewebs.com/d20elements!

 

[Grail Quest]

Minor Update

* minor tweaks to Skills and Feats, including folding all perception skills into a single skill "Perception"
* added the basic framework for my high-magic pseudo-oriental setting "Three Kingdoms"

 

[Wrathamon]

I personally like the 4d6 method... less random

 

[Grail Quest]

I personally like the 4d6 method... less random

The more dice you roll, the less random things become. However, I think too many dice could make the game such that you might as well not roll anything at all and just take the average.

 

[Aaron2]

I just got around to reading this and I have to say there are alot of good ideas in there. Unfortunately, I think I need some sort of cheat sheet that lists what was changed and why. Also, I'd like to see some of these rules made more modular so I can pick and choose. For example, some are to radical to implement in an existing campaign while others aren't.


Aaron

 

[Grail Quest]

I just got around to reading this and I have to say there are alot of good ideas in there. Unfortunately, I think I need some sort of cheat sheet that lists what was changed and why. Also, I'd like to see some of these rules made more modular so I can pick and choose. For example, some are to radical to implement in an existing campaign while others aren't.
Aaron

The major changes would be:
* classless development
Development on this was mostly because classes are a middle-man step that just makes things complicated in the long term; it results in what we have now and what we had in 2nd ed -- an unending amount of kits / classes / PrCs which essentially give different takes and mixes of characters. Why not just go classless, especially when there's a lot of bookkeeping to be saved.
Also, by lifting the need for classes, we make development more "realistic", IMO. No one is strictly any one thing. They are where their interests and experiences have taken them. This is mirrored better by allowing a more or less free selection of feats than taking a sequence of classes.

Also, by allowing heroes to have different "calibers", I feel I am addressing something which is long neglected by D&D simply because it cannot address that with fixed class writeups. The best D&D can do is let high-powered characters in an epic setting start at a higher level, but this has problems of its own, especially when their epic character rules cause so much more paperwork and inconsistency (e.g., A Fighter 20/Wizard 20 is not the same as a Wizard 20/Fighter 20. Why? And not only that, the exact order in which classes are taken suddenly become important. Urgh... Try not to make any mistakes as you level up. I'd personally hate to roll back 5 character levels just because I missed something in updating a character.)

* Size chart
Because the size chart as it stands now has steps that are too large, and some of the stats are simply wrong, IMO. The hit roll penalty, for example, is incorrect at 1,2,4,8, although it is "necessary" as a feeble attempt to balance the incorrect use of the full Strength modifier for melee hit roll adjustment (itself a flawed assumption of how Strength works--sure you swing faster, but you also have a bigger weapon, no? Mass needs to be accounted for!).

Introducing Mass, we can also look at Strength-based skills (see the brief discussion in "D10 Skills") in a more correct way, and no longer use the hack of swapping Str with Dex for small creatures climbing (a strictly subjective and arbitrary rule -- just how small is small and doesn't relative size count?)

* Size DR
Primarily to reduce the use of levels to represent size. Why does a giant have essentially 12+ levels of experience (levels of "giant") just because he's big? But there are a host of interesting applications as well.

* Dice streamlining (e.g., using only d10s)
Not only to tweak the tone of the campaign (e.g., 2d10 = more luck than 3d6, but less than 1d20 for hit rolls and skill checks), but it has other benefits as well. For example, what you use for a hit die is no longer arbitrarily limited by what kind of dice are available (have you ever seen 1d7 or 1d14 for hit dice?). Instead, make a reason for how much you get in Vitality/HP per level, and have a scale that can accomodate it.

Also, by folding Con bonuses into hit dice and Strength bonuses into damage, we avoid situations like rolling 1d2+10 damage. This says that stats *always* have an absolute effect, and I do not agree with this when the rest of the system says that effects can fall into a range of results representing a minimum and maximum.

If there is a question about a specific change, feel free to post it here.

***

The modularity of changes is for you to decide, but certainly some changes are far-reaching. The Size Chart, for example, contains a number of concepts that are not all that easy to implement without re-writing monsters.

If you have a particular query about how to lift something and insert it into your game, feel free to post it here or e-mail me.

Thank you for your interest in D10!

 

[Laman Stahros]

Get it FREE at www.freewebs.com/d20elements!

Well, I would love to look at it but something about your site is causing me problems. When I left-click on the link to download it, I get a warning about my settings not allowing me to download it. So, either your site has some type of problems that McAfee Internet Security blocks, or something.

Maybe you could post it here.

 

[Grail Quest]

Well, I would love to look at it but something about your site is causing me problems. When I left-click on the link to download it, I get a warning about my settings not allowing me to download it. So, either your site has some type of problems that McAfee Internet Security blocks, or something.

Maybe you could post it here.

Hi!

The correct link should be: http://www.freewebs.com/d20elements/

I also have McAfee Internet Security, and I checked the site today. Seems okay, but my settings might differ from yours. If you like, you can e-mail me privately at grail_quest@hotmail.com to receive the latest 571K file.

Thank you for your interest in D10 Elements!

 

[Grail Quest]

Latest version (2004-12-11)

File and related projects always available free at http://www.freewebs.com/d20elements/

 

[Laman Stahros]

Thanks for posting it here. I have no idea why I couldn't get it off your site. Weird.